EPILOGUE || REED
The bonfire crackled and roared, sending sparks spiraling up into the night sky.
The full moon hung heavy overhead, so bright I could have read by its light alone.
Harris and I had finished the novel we were reading together and were halfway through another, reading a chapter each night after dinner, like always.
All around us, the pack gathered in a loose circle around the flames, their faces cast in swirls of orange and deep shadow.
It had been a month since we’d killed the Algea—since Harris had been reborn as a wolf.
And tonight, we were changing again. We were officially welcoming a new member into our fold.
Harris stood beside me and Daniel faced us, looking nervous. His hands were clasped rigidly in front of him, his shoulders tight. But there was something else in his eyes, too.
Hope, maybe. Or relief at finally belonging to us. He had been denied true acceptance for too long and tonight we were putting an end to that.
Besides, the pack had been insular and closed off from the rest of the world for far too long. And it hadn’t gotten us anywhere good. Tonight was our first official step toward constructing a new narrative. One where we could try choosing community and trust over raw strength and isolation.
The pack stood at even intervals around us, facing the bonfire, waiting for my word to begin. Lindsey had come to watch, too, even though she wasn’t technically participating. She stood outside the circle, behind Emma.
Jeremy, in his capacity as the former alpha and my oldest friend, had come as well, bringing his mate, Thierry.
We’d been talking weekly since defeating the Algea, and when I told him what we were about to do, I decided he belonged here with us.
He consented when I broached the subject.
After all, these were people he knew and loved, too.
His new life hadn’t changed any of that.
And as I was learning, it hadn’t changed much of anything at all.
At the end of the day, he was still Jeremy.
And because it was his first truly official act as co-alpha of the Crescent Springs pack, Harris had invited Cole and his human mate, Eli, to witness as well.
Cole was, after all, Harris’s best friend.
And besides, when he’d heard what we were doing tonight, he’d practically invited himself.
He’d been apoplectic at discovering how much danger Harris had willingly placed himself in, not to mention that Harris had become a supernatural being without any warning at all.
But he’d eventually come around. Harris was right: Cole wasn’t really such a bad guy.
Not entirely, at least. He was complicated and messy, like anyone else.
All of our guests hung back from the rest of us, standing with Lindsey, watching the proceedings in respectful silence.
We were all here—everyone I loved most in this world and a few new friends I’d learn to love, given enough time. These were the people I would fight for and even die for, if it came down to that. And these were also the people I had—with difficulty—learned how to let do the same for me.
This was the first formal initiation ceremony the pack had done in four generations. Generally, folks joined the Crescent Springs pack through birth or bite. The last time anyone had done this ceremony, it had been on the heels of a werewolf joining the pack through marrying its alpha at the time.
And this wasn’t any initiation. We were making a warlock a full member of the pack. Something that had never been done before, as far as I knew. No other supernatural creatures had ever joined our pack. Not officially.
The other alphas wouldn’t have done it. Not even Jeremy. He’d said so himself.
But I wasn’t them.
And that was okay by me. I didn’t need to be any of the alphas who had come before. I just needed to be who I was—as messy and confusing as that could sometimes be—and let that be enough.
Harris caught my eye and gave me a small nod, indicating he was ready.
He’d been practicing the ritual words for more than a week, determined to get them exactly right. I felt a rush of affection for him. He wasn’t letting any of this happen to him. He was actively choosing it. Choosing the pack. Choosing this life.
And the pack had chosen him back. They deferred to me out of habit and respect, but I’d watched them turn to Harris more and more over the past month. When I wasn’t around, they followed his lead without question.
Though Emma said she’d never heard of two alphas in one pack before, it was clearly possible under the right circumstances.
The proof was standing beside me. Daniel and Sarah were still combing through decades of journals, looking for anything that might explain what had happened. So far, with no luck.
But unprecedented or not, it was working. Having Harris beside me—a partner in all meanings of the word—made the crushing responsibility of the pack easier to shoulder.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward, and everyone went silent and still, all eyes on me.
“Daniel,” I said, my voice carrying easily in the quiet. “You’ve stood with us. Fought beside us. Bled for us. Tonight, we ask you to join us. Not as an outsider, but as pack.”
Daniel nodded, his eyes suddenly shining.
Harris turned to Emma, who stood right behind us, and took a small wooden bowl from her. I shifted the finger of my left hand into a razor-sharp claw and drew it across my right palm. Blood beaded in the wound immediately.
I dripped it into the bowl, then took it from Harris.
His eyes flashed gold when he did the same, adding his own blood.
I dipped my fingers into it, swirling them to mix Harris’s blood with mine. Then I met Daniel’s eyes. “By blood of the alpha, we bind you,” I said. “By moon, we bless you. By land, we protect you. By pack, we claim you.”
With blood, I drew the crescent moon on his forehead, the symbol of our pack.
I immediately felt the magic binding the pack together begin to settle into place like a key slipping into a lock.
The symbol on the warlock’s forehead glowed faintly with golden light, though I doubted any mundane would have been able to see it.
Maybe he felt it too, because Daniel’s breath hitched. But he didn’t move or shrink away from my gaze.
My eyes locked with his, I added, “Daniel, will you pledge yourself to this pack? Will you stand with us, hunt with us, love with us, and protect us until the end of your days?”
“I will,” Daniel said, his voice steady despite the tremor I could see in his hands.
“Then speak your vow,” I told him.
Daniel took a deep breath. “I vow to protect this pack with everything I have. To stand beside you against the dark. To fight for you in all the ways I can. To bleed for you. To speak words of honesty. To never betray you in word or deed.” He paused, and his voice became stronger, surer.
He finished with, “This I swear, until the end of my days.”
If the blood was the key in the lock, the spoken vows were what turned it, sealing the magic in place and binding him to us and us to him.
Now it was our turn. Harris spoke first. “Daniel Henbane, we vow to defend you always, to the very last of us.”
“We vow to stand with you, no matter what may come,” I continued. “Your hardships are our hardships. Your success is our success. Your happiness is our happiness.”
“And from this day forth, until those gathered here draw their last breaths, we vow to claim you and recognize you as kin. As blood. As pack,” Harris finished.
Magic thrummed in the air, sharp and electric, a gossamer web of light connecting us all.
“Now you must face those you would join,” I said solemnly. “You must be accepted by all of us or none of us. Do you place your trust in the pack?”
“I do.” Daniel swallowed hard, then turned to face the circle, the bonfire casting his face in strange patterns of light and shadow.
Then he stepped forward, facing Emma. She placed her hand over his heart and said, “I see you as kin. You will protect pack, and pack will protect you.”
Daniel nodded at her, his eyes brighter than before. He proceeded around the ring. Sarah was next, then Oliver, then Lacey.
Daniel hesitated in front of Hunter, lowering his gaze to the ground, as if he couldn’t make himself look the wolf in the eye.
The twins exchanged a meaningful glance.
Lee nodded, as though Hunter had spoken—even though he hadn’t.
Hunter tipped Daniel’s chin up with his fingertips, forcing the warlock to look him in the eyes. The expression on his face was unreadable.
“I see you as kin. You will protect pack, and pack will protect you,” Hunter said softly.
Daniel blinked, and I was sure I saw wetness on his cheeks.
Last was Lee.
When Daniel stopped in front of him, Lee did something unexpected. He stepped forward and whispered in Daniel’s ear. Even with my wolf hearing, I couldn’t make out what it was.
Daniel’s expression crumpled and he let out a sharp breath.
For an awful moment, I thought Lee was rejecting him.
But then Lee placed his hand on Daniel’s chest, over his heart, and said, “I see you as kin. You will protect pack, and pack will protect you.”
I let out a breath of relief. With the last pack member having accepted him, the ritual was complete—the key had fully turned in the lock, and we were now bound together through the subtle magic that unified the pack.
And then, an instant later, it happened.
A wave of power poured through me. Crackling and electric, like lightning running under my skin. It rushed through the connection between me and Harris, then out through the pack bonds connecting all of us.
For the barest instant, I saw Daniel’s eyes gleam in the firelight, reflecting light like a wolf’s eyes. Then I blinked and it was gone.
All around the circle, the pack shot each other startled looks. Which meant we’d all felt it.